San Diego Judge Larry Burns said in his ruling, "The court finds the memorial at Mt. Soledad, including its Latin cross, communicates the primarily nonreligious messages of military service, death and sacrifice."
Source: Los Angeles Times, July 31, 2008http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/31/local/me-cross31

President George W. Bush signed legislation in the Oval Office to annex the land under the Mt. Soledad cross, and put it under the control of the Federal Department of Defense. This shifts the legal battle over whether the cross violates the separation of church and state from the state to the federal level. http://www.kpbs.org/news/2006/aug/14/president-bush-to-sign-mt-soledad-cross/

Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett rules Proposition A is unconstitutional.
Cowett said, “Maintenance of this Latin Cross as it is on the property in question, is found to be an unconstitutional preference of religion in violation of Article I, Section 4, of the California Constitution, and the transfer of the memorial with the cross as its centerpiece to the federal government to save the cross as it is, where it is, is an unconstitutional aid to religion in violation of Article XVI, Section 5, of the California Constitution.”
Source: Voice of San Diego, October 7, 2005http://voiceofsandiego.org/2005/10/07/judge-rules-mount-soledad-cross-proposition-unconstitutional-2/

A panel of judges from the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court rules selling the land on Mt Soledad containing the cross to a private group violates the state constitution because it would amount to government aid to religion.
Source: Metropolitan News Enterprise, June 27, 2002http://www.metnews.com/articles/paul062702.htm

San Diego City Attorney John Witt issues a legal opinion that, "neither the cross on Mt. Soledad nor in Presidio Park
violates the tests promulgated by the U.S. Supreme Court; the purpose of each is secular, the primary effect neither advances nor inhibits religion and neither cross fosters an excessive entanglement by government with religion. Therefore, the City is not violating either the Federal or California Constitutions by allowing the crosses to remain."http://docs.sandiego.gov/legalopinions/LO-89-1.pdf

On November 6, 1988 Stephen Thorne, a member of the San Diego chapter of the American Atheists organization sent a letter to the city and county of San Diego asking that the Mt Soledad cross be removed.
In the letter Thorne noted provisions in the U.S. Constitution for the separation of church and state.
In the letter, Thorne went on to say, "These Christian symbols and displays on (public) land clearly violate those constitutional provisions."http://articles.latimes.com/1988-11-14/local/me-212_1_atheists-group